Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of providing energy to electronic devices utilizing solar energy and more particularly to a portable lightweight section of solar panels suitable for use with small devices such as smart phones, personal music devices, PDA (personal data assistants) and cellular telephones.
Related Art
The majority of today's electronic devices are compatible with the USB (universal serial bus) specification for the transferring of data as well as for receiving power in the form of D.C. (direct current) voltage of approximately 5 volts. This specification has become obsequious with roughly 6 billion of these connectors sold to date.
Most portable devices utilize rechargeable batteries encased within the unit and are equipped with a remote charger, typically a transformer in conjunction with a rectifier, which converts household alternating current into a suitable d.c. current. This is a good solution unless the user is not located near a suitable energy source. The use of a remote power source is then required one option is to use the sun's solar energy via a photo-voltaic cell or series of cells.
There have been various attempts to utilize the sun to power cellular phones U.S. Pat. No. 6,977,479 to Hsu and U.S. Pat. No. D505,113 to Lam are examples but each has various drawbacks.